THE HISTORIC TREES OF MASSACHUSE ;S 



This oak is 14 feet, 5 inches in circ 

 ference, 62 feet in height, and 75 feet n ti.e 

 spread of its branches. It has witnessed 

 some stirring scenes, among which may be 

 mentioned the departure of the two com- 

 panies of volunteers, composing "the whole 

 efficient male population of the town" on 

 the day of the battle at Concord and Lexing- 

 ton; and in later years the departure of 

 Company G of the Fifteenth Regiment, 

 Massachusetts Volunteers, at the opening 

 of the Civil War. According to Pierce* s 

 History of Grafton, when this later company 

 was being formed, upon receipt of the news 

 of the attack on the Massachusetts Sixth 

 Regiment at Baltimore, a soldier of the 

 Revolution, Benjamin Smith, ninety-eight 

 years old, attended the meetings and spoke 

 from the platform of the town hall. A 

 monument in the town square records the 

 names of fifty-nine victims which Grafton 

 gave for the life of the nation. 1 



1 Pierce, "Hist, of Grafton," pp. 105-6. 



